Jetrader - Autumn 2016 - 45

to play with those levers and grow, or just
keep the fleet as flat as needed, sometimes
on a short notice. That's what we've done
the last few years, we've returned leased
aircraft and we've worked with Boeing to
defer a number of new 737 NG deliveries
that we had scheduled for 2015 and 2016.
With those two actions we were able to
keep our fleet flat."
Copa grew from 98 to 100 aircraft from
the beginning to the end of 2015, whereas
in previous years the airline grew anywhere
from six to eight aircraft per year. This year,
Copa's actually going down one aircraft,
from 100 to 99 planes, and next year, Copa
plans to stay right at 100, taking in two
aircraft and returning one lease.
"Looking at the three years together,
which is a better way of understanding
what's been going on in this economic
crisis, we plan to have the same number
of aircraft we had at the end of 2015 at
the end of 2017," Heilbron says. "There's
been hardly any growth in three years,
except for gage. We've been replacing
Embraer 190s with Boeing 737-800s, so
we've gone up a little bit in gauge, but
not in fleet count. Again, working with
both lease expirations and deferring NG
deliveries is the way we have been able
to manage the crisis and stay ahead of
the curve. It's been the right thing to not
bring in unnecessary capacity and be very
disciplined with our capacity."
Heilbron believes most Latin American
airlines are acting in a similar manner,
deferring deliveries and growing less than
in previous years to survive.
Another way Copa has exercised discipline with capacity is by making more tactical frequency reductions during low season.
"That's something we were not as aggressive in doing before. We would keep pretty
much the same schedule year round,"
Heilbron says. "Not now. Not given this
economic situation. ... We could be reducing frequencies during a slow two-week
period, even if it's a high-season quarter
or a high-season month, so we're looking
at the whole year and we're making those
adjustments throughout the year."
Remarkably, Copa has added three destinations thus far this year: Holguin, Cuba;
Rosario, Argentina; and Chiclayo, Peru.
"We've been able to do that by moving
capacity around," Heilbron says. "We've
canceled or reduced frequencies in some

markets and that has allowed us to open
new cities."
Copa now flies to 74 destinations in 31
countries throughout North, Central and
South America and the Caribbean.
It's a given that air carriers are drivers
of economic growth, so by opening new
destinations, Heilbron sees his airline helping lift economies.
"It's a big part of what we do," he says.
"We constantly have countries and cities
from our whole region, North America and
Latin America, visiting us and negotiating
with us to open flights to their city or to
their region or to their country, especially
cities that don't have connectivity to the
rest of America, the rest of Latin America,
and they value and understand the importance of air connectivity. It's probably the
most important driver of economic growth,
of tourism, of foreign investment, etc. So
we work a lot with communities ... like
in New Orleans ... we started that a little
over a year ago and the whole community
was very, very involved - not only the
authorities, but the whole community was
involved in convincing us to start service
to New Orleans, understanding the value.
The same happened with Tampa a few years
before, and the same thing happens over
and over again with different countries and
cities in Latin America that value the connectivity that Copa brings to their region."
Heilbron believes the Latin America of
today will bounce back much faster than
the Latin America of yesterday, thanks to

a strong middle class, dynamic business
sector and healthy aviation industry.
Looking ahead, attempting to foresee
how much longer airlines like Copa will
have to maintain such discipline and cleverness to clear the crisis, he says, "OK,
so being disciplined has paid off and I
think we are going to try to be disciplined
forever, hopefully, but in terms of growing again and speeding up our growth,
we're hoping that next year we should
see things getting better. If you look at
our traffic release for the month of June,
we had better load factors than the year
before, and so we're hoping that we will
see the worst of the economic crisis in this
year, 2016. The year is only half through,
so it's too early to tell. We don't know if
we've seen the worst of it yet, I could not
say that right now, but we have seen the
currencies in important countries such
as Brazil and Columbia, we've seen the
currencies strengthen against the dollar,
and we're not seeing the economy getting worse. We might not be seeing the
full positive impact on our business in its
entirety yet, but we're hoping that if those
economic trends we are starting to see
now are sustainable, maybe this year will
be the bottom year, the worst year, and
maybe we will see the economies and the
general aviation environment recuperating
next year. If it goes that way, then maybe
we can start growing again in 2018, but
again, it's too early to tell; I'm just using
the crystal ball that I don't have."
Jetrader * Autumn 2016 45



Jetrader - Autumn 2016

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Jetrader - Autumn 2016

A Message from the President
Calendar/News
Q&A: Mike Williams, Jetaire Group
Wish Upon a Star
Sunshine, Rain and Mixed Feelings
ISTAT’s 2016 Farnborough Airshow Chalet and Reception Continue to Achieve Record Attendance
Legal Status of Aircraft Engines and Effects on Financing and Leasing Transactions
Survival of the Fittest
Weathering Economic Gusts: Copa Airlines’ Pedro Heilbron Advocates Flexibility and Smart Growth
5 Places to Visit While Attending the ISTAT Latin America Forum
From the ISTAT Photo Archives
From the Jetrader Editorial Archives
Aviation History
Aircraft Appraisals
ISTAT Foundation
Advertiser Index
Advertiser.com
Jetrader - Autumn 2016 - cover1
Jetrader - Autumn 2016 - cover2
Jetrader - Autumn 2016 - 3
Jetrader - Autumn 2016 - 4
Jetrader - Autumn 2016 - 5
Jetrader - Autumn 2016 - 6
Jetrader - Autumn 2016 - A Message from the President
Jetrader - Autumn 2016 - 8
Jetrader - Autumn 2016 - 9
Jetrader - Autumn 2016 - Calendar/News
Jetrader - Autumn 2016 - 11
Jetrader - Autumn 2016 - Q&A: Mike Williams, Jetaire Group
Jetrader - Autumn 2016 - 13
Jetrader - Autumn 2016 - 14
Jetrader - Autumn 2016 - 15
Jetrader - Autumn 2016 - Wish Upon a Star
Jetrader - Autumn 2016 - 17
Jetrader - Autumn 2016 - Sunshine, Rain and Mixed Feelings
Jetrader - Autumn 2016 - 19
Jetrader - Autumn 2016 - 20
Jetrader - Autumn 2016 - 21
Jetrader - Autumn 2016 - 22
Jetrader - Autumn 2016 - 23
Jetrader - Autumn 2016 - ISTAT’s 2016 Farnborough Airshow Chalet and Reception Continue to Achieve Record Attendance
Jetrader - Autumn 2016 - 25
Jetrader - Autumn 2016 - 26
Jetrader - Autumn 2016 - 27
Jetrader - Autumn 2016 - 28
Jetrader - Autumn 2016 - 29
Jetrader - Autumn 2016 - 30
Jetrader - Autumn 2016 - 31
Jetrader - Autumn 2016 - Legal Status of Aircraft Engines and Effects on Financing and Leasing Transactions
Jetrader - Autumn 2016 - 33
Jetrader - Autumn 2016 - 34
Jetrader - Autumn 2016 - 35
Jetrader - Autumn 2016 - 36
Jetrader - Autumn 2016 - 37
Jetrader - Autumn 2016 - Survival of the Fittest
Jetrader - Autumn 2016 - 39
Jetrader - Autumn 2016 - 40
Jetrader - Autumn 2016 - 41
Jetrader - Autumn 2016 - 42
Jetrader - Autumn 2016 - 43
Jetrader - Autumn 2016 - Weathering Economic Gusts: Copa Airlines’ Pedro Heilbron Advocates Flexibility and Smart Growth
Jetrader - Autumn 2016 - 45
Jetrader - Autumn 2016 - 5 Places to Visit While Attending the ISTAT Latin America Forum
Jetrader - Autumn 2016 - 47
Jetrader - Autumn 2016 - 48
Jetrader - Autumn 2016 - 49
Jetrader - Autumn 2016 - From the ISTAT Photo Archives
Jetrader - Autumn 2016 - 51
Jetrader - Autumn 2016 - 52
Jetrader - Autumn 2016 - 53
Jetrader - Autumn 2016 - From the Jetrader Editorial Archives
Jetrader - Autumn 2016 - 55
Jetrader - Autumn 2016 - 56
Jetrader - Autumn 2016 - 57
Jetrader - Autumn 2016 - Aviation History
Jetrader - Autumn 2016 - 59
Jetrader - Autumn 2016 - 60
Jetrader - Autumn 2016 - 61
Jetrader - Autumn 2016 - 62
Jetrader - Autumn 2016 - Aircraft Appraisals
Jetrader - Autumn 2016 - 64
Jetrader - Autumn 2016 - 65
Jetrader - Autumn 2016 - ISTAT Foundation
Jetrader - Autumn 2016 - 67
Jetrader - Autumn 2016 - 68
Jetrader - Autumn 2016 - Advertiser Index
Jetrader - Autumn 2016 - Advertiser.com
Jetrader - Autumn 2016 - cover3
Jetrader - Autumn 2016 - cover4
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